GAL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



GAL 



591 



cumbent, scabrous ; corollas trifid : root annual, very small 

 and slender; peduncles usually in threes, very slender, the 

 length of the leaves, one-flowered ; the flowers very small, 

 white, and three-parted; stamina three; fruit very small, 

 smooth and even. It flowers in July. Native of Denmark, 

 Silesia, and Canada. 



4. Galium Montanum ; Mountain Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 in fours, or thereabouts, linear, smooth, and even ; stem weak, 

 scabrous ; flowers in trifid corymbs, white, purplish on the 

 outside before they expand ; antheree brown. The flower is 

 among the largest of this genus ; peduncles branched, many- 

 flowered, ending in a kind of convex umbel; the peduncle 

 swells under the seeds. Native of Germany and Switzerland. 



5. Galium Procumbens ; Trailing Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 on the flowering-stem in sixes, lanceolate, and slightly hairy; 

 the rest generally in fours, obovate ; stem prostrate, smooth. 

 Perennial. The stems and branches are matted together, 

 and spreading on the ground ; flowering-stem from two to six 

 inches high, twisted, appearing cylindrical to the naked eye, 

 but, when magnified, to have four rounded corners. It 

 flowers from June to August; and is found in Dudley wood, 

 in marshes, and on heaths and mountains. 



6. Galium Lucidum. Leaves four to six, rigid, subulate, 

 bowed upwards ; flowers panicled, terminating, larger than 

 the fruit, which is wrinkled ; stem very much branched next 

 to the root : flowering-stems upright, simple, sharply quad- 

 rangular, herbaceous, green ; flowers in a terminating pani- 

 cle ; corolla white, larger than the fruit, which is oblong- 

 ovate, bowed in, black, and wrinkled. Native of dry places 

 in the county of Nice, and probably of Dauphiny. 



7. Galium Tinctorium; Dyeing Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 on the stem in sixes, and linear, on the branches in fours ; 

 stem flaccid ; one or two flowers on a peduncle. This species 

 abounds in the woods of Canada; the roots are employed by 

 the Indians in dyeing the quills of porcupines red. The French 

 women in Canada sometimes dye their clothes with these 

 roots, which are but small ; the colour produced from which, 

 is unchangeable by either air, water, or sun. 



8. Galium Uliginosum ; Marsh Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 in sixes, lanceolate, serrate-prickly backwards, mucronate, 

 stiff; corollas larger than the fruit; root perennial, creeping, 

 slender; stems from procumbent erect, often putting out 

 roots at the base, from a finger's length, to a foot or eigh- 

 teen inches ; the corners rough, with very minute prickles ; 

 two or more branches springing from each joint; flowers in 

 panicles at the ends of the stem and branches, in trifid divi- 

 sions; peduncles very short; at the base of these a pair of 

 leaflets or bractes ; corolla white, larger than the fruit. It 

 flowers in July and August, and is a native of Sweden, France, 

 Germany, Switzerland, and Great Britain, where it is found 

 on wet heaths, in bogs, low meadows, by river sides, and in 

 other watery places. 



9. Galium Spurium ; Corn Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves in 

 sixes, lanceolate, keeled, scabrous, prickly backwards ; joints 

 simple ; stem quadrangular, prostrate, hardly branched, prickly' 

 downwards at the corners ; peduncles axillary and terminating, 

 bowed in, three-flowered, all the flowers hermaphrodite ; seeds 

 globular, smoothish ; style bifid; stigmas globular; bractes 

 subulate at the base of the pedicels. It is an annual plant, 

 and flowers in June and July, and even later in the stubble 

 after the corn is off. It is very common in the corn in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, especially where the soil is calcareous, as about 

 Gogmagost hills, Linton, &c. It is also found in various parts 

 of Oxfordshire, and, according to Hudson, in the isle of Tha- 

 net ; near Leatherhead, and other places in Surry ; near Stam- 

 ford ; and in the Isle of Wight. 



10. Galium Tricorne ; Three-horned Ladies' Bedstraw. 

 Leaves from six to eight, the upper surface smooth, the rib 

 underneath rough ; peduncles lateral, almost naked, trifid ; 

 pedicels bowed back ; fruit tubercled ; umbels on peduncles, 

 generally two to a whorl, opposite, dividing into three 

 branches, not leafy at the base ; fruit roughish, beset with 

 minute tubercles, but which do not end in hairs. 



11. Galium Anglicum; English Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 about six, lanceolate, acuminate, reflex, ciliate, prickly; stems 

 from a foot to eighteen inches high ; flowering branches op- 

 posite, spreading, rough with prickles, pointing backwards ; 

 corollas smaller than the fruit; root annual, branched; pani- 

 cle terminating ; peduncles trifid ; corolla greenish-yellow, 

 small. The prickly hairs at the edge of the leaves point 

 forwards, and sometimes there are a few scattered hairs on 

 the surface ; peduncles smooth, generally dividing into three, 

 one of them supporting two flowers, sometimes dividing 

 simply into two or three ; flowers herbaceous ; seed small, 

 roundish, and not so rough as in most other species. Found 

 on walls at Hackney and Eltham by Sherard ; and by Mr. 

 Crowe, on the walls of Binham church in Norfolk. Hudson 

 observed it in sandy ground, between Dartford and North- 

 fleet, and on a wall at Farningham in Kent. 



12. Galium Saxatile ; Rock Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves in 

 sixes, obovate, obtuse ; stem very much branched, procum- 

 bent. It is scarcely a hand high; root large, producing 

 a prodigious number of angular stems; peduncles one- 

 flowered, very short, scarcely emerging from the leaves, even 

 when the seed is ripe ; seed very large, wrinkled. Native of 

 Spain and Switzerland, where it is found on mountainous 

 rocks. 



13. Galium Pyrenaicum; Pyrenean Ladies' Bedstraw. 

 Leaves in sixes ; flowers lateral, opposite, subsessile, soli- 

 tary ; stems weak, of a finger's length, and branched ; the 

 internodes scarcely the length of the leaves, which are 

 smooth, somewhat convex, and mucronate. Native of the 

 Pyrenees. 



14. Galium Minntum ; Small Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 in eights, lanceolate, mucronate, serrate, prickly, smooth, 

 incurved ; fruits reflex ; stem quite smooth, not scabrous 

 even about the edge; fruits fleshy, large, with the peduncles 

 reflex, whence they are conglomerate. Perennial. Native 

 of Russia. 



15. Galium Pusillum; Dwarf Ladies' Bedstraw. Leaves 

 in eights, hispid, linear, acuminate; fruit smooth; peduncles 

 dichotomous ; root branched, perennial ; stems numerous, 

 from three to ten inches high, branched, the corners com- 

 monly rough with prickles : they form large tufts, covered 

 with numberless milk-white flowers, which are very conspi- 

 cuous at a distance. Not only the corners of the stem, but 

 the edges and midribs of the leaves, are rough, with short 

 spreading hairs. Native of Provence. It has been found 

 on the lime-stone hills near Kendal in Westmoreland, flower- 

 ing in August; and also near Matlock Bath, in Derbyshire, 

 flowering in July. 



16. Galium Verum ; Yeliow Ladies' Bedstraw, or Cheese- 

 rennet. Leaves in eights, linear, grooved ; flowering-branches 

 short ; root perennial, creeping, slender, somewhat woody, of 

 a yellow colour ; stem from one to two feet high, upright, 

 slightly four-cornered, somewhat flexuose, scabrous, pubes- 

 cent, below slightly, above more obviously, pale green, 

 branched towards the top ; the joints cylindric, subovate, 

 whitish, surrounded with a slight margin ; branches brachiate, 

 opposite, alternately much shorter; flowers in a panicle, 

 numerous, small, with a peculiar odour. The panicle about 

 a span in length, interruptedly branched; the branches 



